ng subtly at
the captain. "Kindly speak. We're waiting for you."

"You know yourself Pyotr Stepanovitch, that I can't say anything."

"No, I don't know it. It's the first time I've heard it. Why can't you
speak?"

The captain was silent, with his eyes on the ground.

"Allow me to go, Pyotr Stepanovitch," he brought out resolutely.

"No, not till you answer my question: is it all true that I've said?"

"It is true," Lebyadkin brought out in a hollow voice, looking at his
tormentor. Drops of perspiration stood out on his forehead.

"Is it _all_ true?"

"It's all true."

"Have you nothing to add or to observe? If you think that we've been
unjust, say so; protest, state your grievance aloud."

"No, I think nothing."

"Did you threaten Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch lately?"

"It was... it was more drink than anything, Pyotr Stepanovitch." He
suddenly raised his head. "If family honour and undeserved disgrace
cry out among men then--then is a man to blame?" he roared suddenly,
forgetting himself as before.

"Are you sober now, Mr. Lebyadkin?"

Pyotr Stepanovitch looked at him penetratingly.

"I am... sober."

"What do you mean by family honour and undeserved disgrace?"

"I didn't mean anybody, anybody at all. I meant myself," the captain
said, collapsing again.

"You seem to be very much offended by what I've said about you and your
conduct? You are very irritable, Mr. Lebyadkin. But let me tell you I've
hardly begun yet what I've got to say about your conduct, in its real
sense. I'll begin to discuss your conduct in its real sense. I shall
begin, that may very well happen, but so far I've not begun, in a real
sense."

Lebyadkin started and stared wildly at Pyotr Stepanovitch.

"Pyotr Stepanovitch, I am just beginning to wake up."

"H'm! And it's I who have waked you up?"

"Yes, it's you who have waked me, Pyotr Stepanovitch; and I've been
asleep for the last four years with a storm-cloud hanging over me. May I
withdraw at last, Pyotr Stepanovitch?"

"Now you may, unless Varvara Petrovna thinks it necessary..."

But the latter dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

The captain bowed, took two steps towards the door, stopped suddenly,
laid his hand on his heart, tried to say something, did not say it, and
was moving quickly away. But in the doorway he came face to face with
Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch; the latter stood aside. The captain shrank into
himself, as it were, before him, and stood as though fr